JOE REXRODE

Peyton Manning and the two Tennessee decisions that changed his life

Joe Rexrode
The Tennessean

“Rudy” was in theaters and Peyton Manning was at Notre Dame, walking around with his brother Cooper, awed by the history and wooed by the master.

“Pretty much the all-time recruiter,” Manning said of Lou Holtz. “He had me hooked that I was going to Notre Dame.”

Then Manning was at Michigan. And Florida. And Florida State. And did it really matter anyway? Not in the minds of the Ole Miss fans who were sure Manning would sign in 1994 with the Rebels, as it was ordained when he was born. Archie Manning’s kid couldn’t possibly choose elsewhere. And if there was an official visit of no consequence, it had to be the one to Knoxville.

Let’s stop there for a second. If there’s a Peyton Manning story that hasn’t made a book or TV documentary yet, that will change soon enough. Some fans know them all, some don’t, but the fact is he feels like telling some of them right now. It is the hall-of-fame phase of the 43-year-old Manning’s life, and on Saturday he enters the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame — headlining a loaded class that includes Kippy Brown, David Cutcliffe, Charles Davis, Kara Lawson, George Taliaferro, Bob Tillman, Kimberly Anne Valek and Patrick Willis, with Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk honored as 2019 Tennessean of the Year.

Manning was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame last week, and that brought to mind his youth, growing up the son of a star quarterback and then becoming one at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. He will enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021 as one of the greatest to play his position and the game, and it might take all night to reflect on a career that included five MVP seasons and Super Bowl wins with the Colts and Broncos.

But Tennessee is different for Manning. It’s a sweet spot, as that phase of life is for many. His stay was brief but intense, and unexpected given his upbringing. His paternal grandmother grew up in Humboldt but he never spent time in the state. He knew orange as the enemy. This is the 25-year anniversary of Manning signing with the Vols, but it’s also the 50-year anniversary of “The Jackson Massacre,” when Archie avenged a 1968 loss to UT by destroying one of the most talented teams in Vols history, 38-0.

Archie Manning rolls out to throw against  No. 3-ranked Tennessee on Nov. 15, 1969, at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. Ole Miss defeated Tennessee, 38-0.

“I know some Tennessee people who still haven’t gotten over that game,” Peyton Manning said, and he would know because he remains tight with the UT people — and the football program, patiently waiting for it to cycle back to something resembling the prosperity of his era.

Moonshine in Knoxville

But in 45 minutes of talking about those college days, Manning didn’t produce a single story from the playing field. Getting to Knoxville and staying there for a fourth year, he said, were two of the most important decisions of his life. Those are on his mind these days. The official visit to UT remains vivid — a cold, rainy weekend that cemented a decision he was already close to making, even if few outsiders would have guessed so at the time.

“I just had good interactions with people, with students, with some of the players,” Manning said. “I may or may not have taken a little moonshine with a couple offensive linemen. So I kind of got my Tennessee welcoming, if you will. And I remember leaving there saying, ‘I could go here. I could be happy in school here if football doesn’t work out.’”

Football, not working out? A quarter century ago, Manning was just another highly rated prospect with no assurance of college or pro success. Shoot, according to Blue Chip Illustrated, an authority of the time, he was the No. 2 quarterback in Louisiana, after LSU commit Josh Booty.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen on the field,” Manning said. “That’s why when you’re picking a school, you can’t do it because of the offense or the quarterback situation. You pick a school because you’d be happy in school there.”

Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning is pictured with offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe on Aug. 30, 1997, before the Texas Tech game in Knoxville. (TENNESSEE ATHLETICS)

And that goes to people. And Cutcliffe is the main reason Manning visited Knoxville looking to confirm a hunch rather than develop one. It is fitting that Manning and Cutcliffe are entering the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame together, and it should be entertaining.

“Oh, Peyton will pick on me somehow, some way,” said Cutcliffe, the 64-year-old Duke  coach who was Phillip Fulmer’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during the recruitment of Manning, and a mentor and close Manning friend thereafter.

The Manning-Cutcliffe machine

Cutcliffe said he knew the Vols were getting Manning after he and Fulmer showed up in New Orleans for an in-home visit.

“There was never a doubt in my mind after that, not to be arrogant, that he was coming to Tennessee,” Cutcliffe said.

“We really hit it off, but I always give coach Fulmer credit for that visit, too,” Manning said. “A lot of head coaches would get a little territorial there, like, ‘This is my show, this is my recruit.’ But he saw that (Cutcliffe and I) were establishing a rapport and he let it happen. It was an impressive move by him and it worked.”

Cutcliffe is a University of Alabama graduate who was coaching at Birmingham Banks High, his alma mater, when Johnny Majors hired him as a part-time assistant at UT in 1982. The Manning years would help him get the Ole Miss head coaching job in 1998, and there he would coach Eli Manning. As NFL quarterbacks, the Manning brothers visited him every offseason for training because “that’s exactly what an NFL quarterback needs, to be coached hard like he’s still in college,” Manning said.

David Cutcliffe, Duke, on the 2019 NFL Draft red carpet Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn.

“I told them up front, ‘I’m not changing,’” said Cutcliffe, who has been at Duke since 2008 and who just saw quarterback Daniel Jones drafted by the Giants to be Eli’s understudy and successor. “’I’m gonna watch your tape and if I see something lazy, a lazy habit you’ve gotten into, I’m calling it out. That’s not happening at my place.’ I’m getting fired up talking about it.”

This was a football collaboration and a relationship Cutcliffe called “magical,” and he credited Manning for growing him as a coach at UT. Before Manning, he had never considered how much responsibility a great quarterback can have on the field before the snap. He had never seen one who practiced with such intensity and competitiveness that it lifted the team around him.

New York Giants veteran quarterback Eli Manning (10) and rookie quarterback Daniel Jones (8) on the field for OTAs on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, in East Rutherford.

He’d also never had a night quite like the one he had in New Orleans after Manning signed with Tennessee. Back then — before coaches could send digital cut-ups to recruits to help them prepare — they were allowed to visit signees to go over schematics. Famously, Cutcliffe and Manning stayed up all night talking ball and watching film, while Archie drifted off to sleep.

Part of that story traces to the previous evening, when Peyton was out late with his buddies and his father stayed up waiting for him to get home. But it meant more than that to him, and it paired with the fact that his parents never pushed Ole Miss or any other school on him.

“My dad was tired in the first place, let’s be honest, but I looked at that as kind of a sign, too,” Manning said. “My dad has always been the best resource for me to go to on football, but he didn’t want to be my coach in college. He said, ‘Hey, go get coached by these guys,’ and I think that was a healthy approach. I know Cut appreciated it.”

One more year with the Vols

They won a lot of football games together. But Manning also remembers the touch football games on Cherokee Boulevard, where he lived with teammates, including Trey Teague and Greg Johnson. Some of the games were extensive enough to include a draft. Some of them a little more tackle than touch. He remembers Eli visiting as a high schooler and taking part, and a friend saying: “Gosh, your brother is pretty good.”

He remembers a horseback ride with Fulmer to see the actual Rocky Top as part of a fund-raising initiative. It was five hours up, as Manning recalls it, and 45 minutes down. Why? Their guide told them he figured they wanted to ride around for a while.

University of Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer watches during a Tennessee Vols football spring practice Saturday, March 9, 2019.

“We both wanted to tackle him,” Manning said.

And of course he remembers the decision to return for his senior season. On the day he announced it, he was told afterward by Vols announcers Bob Kesling and Mike Keith that the look on his face said he was leaving.

“I still kid them to this day about it,” Manning said. “Like I’m going to call a press conference to say, ‘I’m outta here, I’m going to the Jets, see ya.’”

The decision itself, Manning said, came with this epiphany: “Gosh, I’ve kind of rushed through this whole process, you know? I don’t want to be 50 years old and saying, ‘What would college have been like?’ I’m throwing the injury factor out the window. You can be hurt at any time.”

So he stayed. He graduated in three years after taking 22 credits in the spring of his junior year. He took grad classes as a senior, built stronger relationships, had fun, improved as a player and further endeared himself to the state that will always count him as one of its own. He set a different NFL course for himself, too, and though all we know about Manning says he would have starred anywhere, it's not certain things would have been the same with a year less of college ball and a different franchise.

School, work, retire is how we are programmed. But a youthful detour can be rewarding. And it can give you more to talk about when it’s time to reminisce.

“Sometimes you have to slow life down,” Manning said. “And that was one of the best decisions of my life.”

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Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.